Assistant Principals
Mr Barut
Exams and learning!
It’s all happening!
- VCAA exams are imminent
- Assemblies are happening
- Students are working hard to achieve their personal best
- Teachers are giving their all for the success of students
- Professional Learning Communities are vibrant
This leads me into the importance of all our parents supporting the strategic direction of the College that asks for all to be respectful, professional and solution focussed with all the staff. If you need to speak to yours truly, or a co–ordinator, or a teacher, please ring first to arrange an appointment – schools are very busy places and this practice will allow us to give you our full attention.
For all our Year 12s and those Year 11s doing a Unit 3 and 4 subject, VCAA exams are on in earnest! Last minute revision, new batteries for CAS calculators, sharpened pencils and sharpened minds; it all equates to another learning experience for our students.
In the other Sub Schools, classes continue, learning tasks continue, assessment continues – it is business as usual.
A massive thank you to Ms Pritchard, Ms Margellis, Mrs Meek, the Junior School House Co–ordinators team and all our Year 7 ambassadors who are visiting our local primary feeder schools to visit our new Year 7 students for 2020. We look forward to meeting the newest members of our college community.
James Barut
Assistant Principal
Maria Allison
Welcome back to Term 4, a term that is always very busy time full of calendared events and movement around the College. Next week we will farewell our 2019 Year 12 cohort. The College wishes all students a very successful and prosperous future and encourage every student to embrace opportunities that present, to challenge themselves but most importantly to become the best person they can be. A few words of wisdom I think encapsulates the future they may create are the ‘five steps forward’ by Cam Greenwood, founder of Monsta Surf.
DISCOVER MORE
1.Set Your Compass
2.Pack Lightly
3.Step Out
4.Expect Storms
5.Keep Moving
Art and Technology Exhibition 2019
Ringwood Secondary College encourages you to view and acknowledge our talented students and their work in our annual Art and Technology Exhibition that will showcase student’s skills and talents from a wide range of the Arts and Technology subjects such as: Art, Studio Arts, Visual Communication, Media, Photography, Textiles, Wood, Food Technology, Product Design Technology, Materials, CAD and Digitech. The Opening Night will be held on Tuesday the 22nd of October at 7pm, in the RT building (upstairs space) at the College. Entry to the opening night is by gold coin donation and light refreshments will be served on that evening. The exhibition will also be open for viewing on the following days from 9am to 4:30pm.
Student Wellbeing Action Team (SWAT)
Congratulations to our Year 10 SWAT team, Patrick Wallace, Cory Cvetovac and Kyle Charles who presented their project at the Maroondah City Council Youth Services presentation evening. The RSC community s grateful for the teams valuable, proactive work in supporting the wellbeing of the RSC community. During this year they have participated in a one-day workshop on understanding leadership and wellbeing, a two-night camp to identify personal and group strengths and start putting skills into practice, plus a school based project supported by a Marcus, a Maroondah Youth Worker.
The SWAT team wellbeing project was selected from provided topics such as:
- Increasing frequency of exercise
- Tackling suppression
- Increasing positive emotion
- Reducing stigma around mental health
- Improving access to wellbeing support
- Strengthening connection to community
- Introducing positive psychology activities into the classroom
Antipodeans
An alternative to schoolies…
The Antipodeans program is an extraordinary journey overseas for secondary students. Unlike your typical school trip, expeditions are student-led, preparing young people for life outside the classroom as they develop resilience, vital leadership skills and mindfulness through responsible travel. The trips require each student to leave their smartphone at home and live in the now. They must make decisions and communicate as a team—skills they can’t learn by looking at a screen. On top of planning and making decisions, students on Expedition participate in a rewarding community project, breath taking trek and deep cultural immersion as they explore some of the most spectacular places on Earth.
An expedition is a school trip with more. More adventure, more giving back, more ownership from students and more planning and support for teachers. A 3-4-week journey through a developing country, the expeditions inspire all kinds of things. A new perspective. Gratitude. Mindfulness. They also allow students to give back to a community abroad, through a rewarding project.
If you are interested please visit the Antipodeans website.
The Resilience Project
The Resilience Project held an information evening, focused on positive mental health strategies, at the Karralyka Centre, Wednesday, October 15th. Martin Heppel, a dynamic energetic speaker, gave an inspiring talk focused on resilience, mindfulness, gratitude, empathy and positive emotions. Some of his simple but poignant take away points included: eat dinner together around the table with no mobile phones in range and hug often!
https://theresilienceproject.com.au
Wellbeing Focus for this week…
Wellbeing Element: Strengths and emotions
Character Strength: Bravery
Wellbeing Fitness Challenge: Looking forward and reducing tension
There will be times in everyone’s life where you experience stress and tense feelings. No doubt the VCE students will be experience these feelings leading into their exams. Recognising early warning signals enables intervention and support. Conversations around the creation and action of positive coping strategies to reduce anxiety, are effective reducers. Suggesting things, for other ways to start using their signature and top supporting character strengths, is a proactive approach. Through the understanding of their personal strengths students can further develop their emotional literacy.
Triggers, which may become stressors for students include substantial study and learning workload coupled with lacking organisational skills; overly high expectations of themselves and from others; striving to be “too” perfect and obsessed with detail; peer group/family issues and social networking harassment. While these situations are undesirable, the reality is that they will occur from time to time. The key is not letting them intensify into stronger emotions and more serious mental health issues. The most effective way to build students’ social-emotional resilience is to teach them how to develop their own positive self-calming strategies.
- Find an activity that reduces tension or stress such as being mindful, playing sport, reading a book, walking the dog, gardening. Exercise!
- Improve time management by prioritising events or work.
- Eat well (fresh vegetables and fruit) and eat breakfast.
- Go to bed early, turn the mobile off by 9pm ready for 8 hours of sleep.
- Celebrate positive achievements and increase contact with others.
For our senior students, especially the Year 12’s, the exam period can trigger tension and stress, so it is imperative that we as supporters create opportunities for release of this stress and discuss potential approaches for positive study and time management. Urge students to look forward with enthusiasm and bravery.
Mrs Maria Allison
Assistant Principal